[2] The genus Dasyornis was sometimes placed in the Acanthizidae or, as a subfamily, Dasyornithinae, along with the Acanthizinae and Pardalotinae, within an expanded Pardalotidae, before being elevated to full family level by Christidis & Boles (2008).

Although their exact position within the Australasian basal lineages of passerines is not fully resolved, Marki et al.’s 2017[6] study, the first to sample and sequence molecular data for all three species of bristlebirds, placed them within the ecologically diverse infra-order Meliphagides (formerly known as Meliphagoidea).

This lineage consists of five families: Maluridae (fairywrens and allies), Acanthizidae (thornbills and gerygones), Meliphagidae (honeyeaters), Pardalotidae (pardalotes) and Dasyornithidae (bristlebirds).

They infer from this that genetic divergences within the family may be greater than their similar morphologies might suggest and urge denser sampling to explore the possibility of overlooked cryptic species.

According to Gould, they were "to be found throughout New South Wales in all places suitable to its habits, although, from the recluse nature of its disposition, it is a species familiar to few, even of those who have long been resident in the colony.

[3] Gould's description of the Eastern bristlebird's habitat as "reed-beds and thickets, particularly such as are overgrown with creepers and vegetation" captures the density of coastal heath scrub and grasslands favoured by the Dasyornithidae, although not the fire-dependence of these environments, which require burning to prevent the trees shading out the grass component.

Birds forage in pairs, making small contact calls to keep in touch, and constantly flicking their tails whilst moving.

[citation needed] With two of the three recognised species already on the IUCN Red List, the Dasyornithidae are increasingly vulnerable to habitat destruction by ever more fierce and frequent bush fires.

The Rufous bristlebird D. broadbenti is still comparatively common in its core areas of western Victoria and far south-east South Australia, but the ranges of the other two species have contracted since European settlement to relict populations found almost entirely within national parks and reserves with appropriate weed eradication and fire management regimes.

Eastern bristlebirds require a more delicate balance with some degree of burning needed to promote regeneration of the grasslands they favour but too much destroying both habitat and potential refugia where populations can shelter until vegetation recovers.

[12] Habitat loss since European settlement from land-clearing for agriculture and extensive housing development along coastal strips in more recent times also threatens bristlebird survival.